algae in refugium ?

[MacDracor]

Uv sterilizers. Bah! Waste of electricity and money.
More flow, more flow, and then maybe some more flow. Did I mention more flow? 150 is a huge tank. Almost 3x the size of mine and I have almost as much flow as yours does. That should give you some perspective. Also look at Mr X's build threads. The guy is a wiz at this stuff.
And did I read that correctly that you are using tap water? Oy... The friends with sw tanks that use tap water? Their tanks are not thriving. They appear to be. Big distinction. They will crash. Maybe not today. Maybe not next week. Maybe not even next year. But they will crash. Tap water does not belong in sw tanks. I use the Glacier machines outside grocery stores. It's RO, sterilized, and carbon filtered. I wish it was DI as well, but we can't have it all.

 

[JJ-MIK]

A guy has a 210g a 150 . And a 125 in his basement.. Has for many years. He is growing coral in all three tanks like you wouldn't believe.. Does a water change.. Maybe once a month. Never tests his water. And has a 55g drum in his basement filled with tap water and primed.. Not one drop of to water.... Oh and with your water you get... Dud you ever wonder if your actually getting ro water?? What if three people come in before you and fill up 5 5 gallon jugs of water. Then the next guy gets 6... Then you come in and all the ro water is already gone because that thing only produces 50 gallons a day... Guess you just got tap water huh... Who knows if that thing is hooked straight up to a hose anyways... Not even to an ro unit... Just sayin..

 

[JJ-MIK]

Not trying to sound like a pencil.. But just sayin. I wouldnt trust places that have ro water like that.. They may never even change filters.. Your just getting straight tap water. Not even primed... I do need to get more flo.. More rock. More inverts. More money!! Haha

 

[MacDracor]

A pencil isn't what I would call that. Funny thing about assumptions. They can make one appear a certain way.
I actually do know what happens when the machine's filter needs to be replaced or when the internal reservoir is empty and the filter hasn't caught up yet. It displays a message indicating it is out of water. It's happened. So don't just assume. Might sound hypocritical considering my statement about tap water. But that's less an assumption and more statistics. Ask around the forum. Anyone who has been doing this long enough knows tap water is asking for trouble. Maybe you've got great tap in your city (though considering g that tap is a common culprit for algae, and that was your original complaint...) and your friends really aren't having issues with nutrients or city water contaminants. There may be copper in such small amounts that it could take five years to reach deadly levels. But if that's the case, in a year or two, every single invert in those tanks will die, and probably overnight. This is such a common story. "I've used tap water for years and never had a problem" Well, just because a problem is t readily apparent doesn't mean it isn't there. Many dangerous compounds can be adsorbed into calcareous rock and sand where it remains inert until reaching a saturation point. Then it is largely released creating instant toxicity.
Again, I am not saying your city's tap has copper. Or anything dangerous. But you clearly don't know if it does and your friends don't test. Available info: you're using tap water and have a problem. Don't insult me for sharing common wisdom with you.

 

[oyf709]

I think the issue is that many things can go both ways. However, I believe that when you ask for help, people will provide you the best practice to at least give you 80% to 90% success in keeping Reef tank(The rest of those are cost related that you might or might not be able to achieve). You might get away from using tap water, you might get away by using T5 or MH but never change your light bulbs or even get away with not doing water change for 2 or 3 years other than replacing water that is evaporate. But all of those above are not best practice, keeping a reef tank is not gambling, you don't just try on certain thing and wish it works. There are ways that will guarantee you to be able to keep your fish and coral happy.

 

[JJ-MIK]

My apologies!! I wasn't insulting you. I do know tho what is in our tap water here. They provided a full list of what they use to treat our water. To our local pet store. And it's not all that bad. But I did read tho. That even ro/di units still allow many bad things. One including silicates through the filter.. At least that's what I read.

 

[MacDracor]

It's all good. Now is that a complete water quality report including what trace elements are found in it, or just what is added to it? And remember that those are average levels. As for the silicates... that is a highly debated thing. In one camp, silicates are blamed for diatoms. In the other, diatoms will not accumulate (regardless of silicate levels) with sufficient flow and low enough nutrients. So I'd call silicates a contributor but not a cause. That's just my take on it though. And while a standard RO filter won't remove all of them, I'd be shocked if they don't at least reduce them.